Blog posts by FLOW team and guest writers
If there was ever any doubt that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, a recent estimate of the cost to Michigan taxpayers of cleaning up environmental contamination should have dispelled it. According to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), there are some 13,000 so-called orphan sites across… Read more »
One of the military clashes between England and the United States was the battle of Lake Erie. On September 10, 1813, nine ships under U.S. Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry bested a nine-ship English fleet in a decisive battle for control of western Lake Erie and surrounding lands. Today, a 352-foot International Peace Memorial on… Read more »
Lost in the barrage of bad news about harmful pollutants, invasive species, habitat loss, and climate change is quiet progress on some long-term challenges. The statistics bear this out and suggest the potential for successfully addressing today’s environmental problems. Our rivers and lakes are noticeably cleaner than they were when Congress passed the Clean Water… Read more »
A popular vehicle decal says the Great Lakes are “unsalted and shark-free.” Is it true? Not if you consider road salt and salt from water softeners. In 2021, scientific researchers estimated chlorides in Lake Michigan had risen from about 1-2 milligrams per liter before European settlement to more than fifteen milligrams per liter. Canadian researchers… Read more »
By Carolan Sonderegger, FLOW Policy Director With my sema, or tobacco, in hand, I prepared to perform the sacred and culturally significant act of seeding manoomin. Sema serves as a conduit for acknowledgement and a way to communicate with Gizhemanidoo, the creator. I gave my gratitude to Gizhemanidoo by offering the sema into the water,… Read more »
Out of Michigan’s 24,000 Contaminated Sites, These Are Among the Most Notorious Once upon a time, Michigan scientifically ranked our thousands of contamination sites by the hazard they represented to public health and the environment. Released annually, the list generated extensive publicity and legislative attention, resulting in significant appropriations for the cleanup of the worst… Read more »
To find a cranky, resolute, dry-witted champion for Michigan’s water, you need look no farther than Michael Delp. In his prose and poetry – especially as his alter ego, the Mad Angler, he has written lyrically of trout and forcefully condemned polluters. Mike is just out with a collection, The Mad Angler: Poems, that deepens… Read more »
A proposal to turn artesian groundwater that feeds Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin into a product for sale continues to run head-on into the law, the community, a tribe, and a citizens group, Lake Superior Not for Sale (LSNFS). The most recent defeat for Kristle KLR came in June, when the Wisconsin Court of Appeals… Read more »
Download the report: Institutional Controls for Groundwater Management: Long-Term Costs and Policy Impacts The true economic, ecological, and social costs of relying on land use restrictions to address groundwater and soil contamination instead of active clean up are likely significantly higher than generally estimated. That is a conclusion of a new report submitted to the… Read more »
Lake Ontario is the only one of the Great Lakes that Michigan does not border. Receiving the waste of the other four Great Lakes and the impact of industrial development in its own watershed, Lake Ontario faces special challenges. In his new book, The Lives of Lake Ontario, Daniel Macfarlane explores the checkered environmental history… Read more »
